How to Turn on Your AC Before You Even Walk In the Door

Get relief from the heat the second you get home.

By
David Nield

Jul 7, 2015

There's a tidal wave of smart home products flooding onto the market, but it might be hard to come up with a reason that you really needcolor-changing smart lightbulbs. But there are some fantastically convenient uses for smart home tech. Take, for example, switching on your air conditioner before you even set foot inside.

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If having your humble abode be icy cold the second you step through the door on a hot day sounds good to you, we've got good news. There are a few different ways to tackle your home climate with technology. Here are three options for you to choose from, covering the spectrum from bring-it-home-and-plug-it-in to DIY.

Upgrade your air conditioner with Sensibo

Sensibo is an add-on that makes any AC unit smart, provided it is at least already smart enough to have some sort of remote control. Even a wheezing, 20-year-old radiator can be upgraded with Sensibo as long as it has an included remote. Single Sensibo kits start at $159, but you can pay more if you have a more complex setup at home. The more expensive packs come with a smart hub for keeping multiple units in sync. All of the kits work on the same principle though. A smartphone app lets you control the Sensibo, which lets you control the remote, enabling you to turn your air conditioning on and off wherever you happen to be in the world.

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You can have Sensibo running automatically, so it can use built-in sensors to intelligently adjust your air conditioning based on the temperature of the room and even whether you're actually in it. You can also schedule the device to turn on or off at certain times (right after you finish work for example). You can pair the Sensibo with all kinds of different units from different manufacturers if you change ACs, and you can hookup multiple units to multiple units if you have more than one. Thanks to the extra smarts built in, you should find you're saving cash on your electricity bill and reducing your demands on the environment at the same time.

It's possible to upgrade Sensibo's capabilities even further by adding IFTTT (If This Then That) to the mix. IFTTT connects together all kinds of apps and hardware and includes a Sensibo channel. t=That means you're able to turn your AC on or off with a tap on your phone, a text to a certain number, or even a tweet. What's more, you can even use IFTTT to keep an eye on your location (using your phone) and configure your AC unit accordingly. The only limit is your ingenuity.

Take the DIY option with LittleBits Smart AC Unit

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If you'd rather get your hands a little dirty (and spend a touch less money) the LittleBits solution is probably for you. LittleBits is an open source library of electronic modules that let you add smart capabilities to existing appliances and build your own systems. It's essentially a do-it-yourself kit for the smart home, whether you want to take control of your lighting or your rabbit hutch. You can use LittleBits adapt an existing air conditioner using a series of LittleBits devices: USB power, number display, temperature sensor, IR transmitter and CloudBit module.

If you enjoy tinkering and building your own solutions to problems then this is the option to go for. But even so, you don't need any in-depth knowledge of robotics or electronics and LittleBits has put together a helpful guide to the process for you to follow (you can of course tweak it to suit your own setup).

The temperature sensor shows how hot or cold your room is through a display on your AC unit and broadcasts the same information over the web, where you can check it through a smartphone app. From that same app, you can send a signal to the AC unit. Your instructions are passed over the internet to the LittleBits IR transmitter, which can then tell your AC unit what to do (switching on the air con just as you're about to leave for home, for example).

Once again, you can get IFTTT involved too. It has a LittleBits channel so you can use the trigger of your choice—a particular time, or when your phone arrives in a particular location—and then change the temperature at home accordingly. This means you don't even have to tell your AC unit to start its work, because everything will be handled automatically for you.

Start from scratch with Aros

If you're happy getting ready of your old AC unit (or you need a brand new one) there are a growing number of smart models to pick from: Samsung, LG and others have various products with smarts built-in, but here we're looking at Aros from Quirky, a complete air conditioning unit that you can fit inside one of your windows to monitor and maintain temperatures.

As Aros is built with the smart home in mind, a lot of the configuration is done for you, like getting online, connecting to the smartphone app and so on. It actually plugs into the Wink smart home platform (also supported by the likes of Nest and Philips Hue) so access is handled through the Wink app. You can turn the AC on and off from anywhere in the world but Aros comes with plenty of other smart features too.

There's GPS support built-in, so Aros can react to your location automatically, and it also learns from your previous behavior and habits to schedule its heating and cooling processes accordingly. It can even suggest particular settings to match your budget or the predicted weather conditions, so there's much more to it than remote operation.

Since the system's compatible with Wink, you can trick it out as little or as much as you want to. You can splurge a touchscreen controller for all your smart home devices for $300, for instance. If you have the patience, and you can afford it, starting from the ground up with your smart AC system gives you the most flexibility when it comes to the way it works.

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